THE RED VIPER

When she saw the guardsmen on the third pier, in grey woolen cloaks trimmed with white satin, her heart almost stopped in her chest. The sight of Winterfell’s colors brought tears to her eyes.

.

.

.

Look with your eyes, she heard Syrio whisper. Arya looked. She knew all of her father’s men. The three in the grey cloaks were strangers.

“You,” the one walking rounds called out. “What do you want here, boy?” The other two looked up from their dice. It was all Arya could do not to bolt and run, but she knew that if she did, they would be after her at once. She made herself walk closer. They were looking for a girl, but he thought she was a boy. She’d be a boy, then. “Want to buy a pigeon?” She showed him the dead bird.

“Get out of here,” the guardsman said. Arya did as he told her.

She did not have to pretend to be frightened. Behind her, the men went back to their dice.

Rereading AGoT is such a cleansing experience for the soul after the disaster that was the show… I honestly find this whole passage such a delightful read. At age 9, Arya displays the kind of bravery, insight and brilliance that’s fascinating. Most people would name Arya taking on Joffrey as her best moment in this book, but personally- I’m torn between two moments that feature as her best moments. The first one being when she escapes the Red Keep, calmly walking across it, after watching her father’s men butchered, knowing she can’t betray her nerves and second here - quick on her feet Arya once again faces the danger head on but this time around, the enemy was disguised in colors that she associated with safety and home. Syrio’s lessons became her guiding mantra but it was being Arya Underfoot that truly helped her here… had Arya not been who she is at Winterfell, the girl who would make friends with anybody, she could have been easily caught in this deception laid down for her, devised by people much older and stronger than she was.

I often read Arya’s a warrior and somehow that doesn’t sit well with me. Not because Arya’s afraid to pick up a sword, no, that couldn’t be further away from the truth, my girl doesn’t back out of a fight, but a sword is NOT her only weapon but because the implication is that she’s merely a sword, that’s the beginning and end of her especially thanks to this bloody show that’s stupid to the boot.

Arya is not an one girl/woman army as is the implication sometimes… hell she’s a child, a skinny, starving child who is even afraid of answering nature’s call because she’s always surrounded by rapists and murderers once she escapes the Lannisters and a simple thing as peeing could end up causing more harm than she imagined for her. Arya’s not survived only because she’s good with a sword in her hand; her most important weapon is her mind; that quick thinking of hers which makes her so resourceful, adaptable and allows her instincts to guide her. Arya wouldn’t have made it half as far as she did if all she had was her sword to rely on, because let’s be real - if that had been the case she’d have been the most gifted 9 year old in existence even in fiction ever, if she could wield a sword that would save her from everyone she ever encounters who means to harm her, with or without the knowledge of her identity.

“Longspear’s not your brother.”  -Jon      

Jon never answers Ygrittes question directly instead he states that Longspear is not her brother, which might be an answer in itself meaning as long as you aren’t really related as brother and sister it’s fine in his view.

And here we have Jon starting to question and deny that Arya is his sister or was ever.

“Jon had never met anyone so stubborn, except maybe for his little sister Arya. Is she still my sister? he wondered. Was she ever? “ 

“I have no sister. Only brothers. Only you.”

“I have no sister.” The words were knives. What do you know of my heart, priestess? What do you know of my sister? 

“He had even less trust in Melisandre. Yet somehow here he was, pinning his hopes on them. All to save my sister. But the men of the Night’s Watch have no sisters “

Am I saying that’s Jon denying their relationship because he already has romantic feelings for her? No.

I don’t think it’s one-sided. 

I just think that GRRM is (rightfully) delaying a romance with Arya and a love interest 5 years her senior, since she was only 9-10 when they met. 

Halfway across the bridge, Jon pulled up suddenly.

“What is it, Jon?” their lord father asked.

“Can’t you hear it?”

Bran could hear the wind in the trees, the clatter of their hooves on the ironwood planks, the whimpering of his hungry pup, but Jon was listening to something else.

“There,” Jon said. He swung his horse around and galloped back across the bridge.

They watched him dismount where the direwolf lay dead in the snow, watched him kneel. A moment later he was riding back to them, smiling.

“He must have crawled away from the others,” Jon said.

“An albino,” Theon Greyjoy said with wry amusement. “This one will die even faster than the others.”

Jon Snow gave his father’s ward a long, chilling look. “I think not, Greyjoy,” he said.

“This one belongs to me.”

- AGoT Bran, Chapter I

Then proceeded to crown themselves queen even though their brother is already king with a democratic system guaranteeing at least the removal of tyrants, just to prove what a greedy, powerseeking snake they were all along.

“Can I be the Lord of a holdfast?”

and in the books:

“Can I be a king’s councillor and build castles and become the High Septon?”

How is this choosing life? Nobody knows what’s west of Westeros soooooo she could in all likelihood be sailing no where to die alone in the middle of the sea with no land or resources in sight then? Cool, how fun. Definitely something that you should be portraying as like a fun adventure! It would be one thing if Bran had like a line thrown in there where he looks west and sees things to discover, land and peoples etc. and tells Arya she’ll find things and be happy. Or if it was portrayed like she can come back, perhaps aftering mapping these lands and bring the knowledge back with her. But it wasn’t. So it might as well be her going alone off on a suicide mission never to be seen or heard from again. That’s not a ~fun adventure~ and shouldn’t be portrayed as such. Not only did this not make sense for Arya’s entire arc throughout the whole series, it didn’t even make any sense with her decisions in the penultimate episode, ya know literally the episode right before this one? How is this choosing life? How is this choosing life and light and love over death?

Also when did Arya learn how to captain and sail a ship? Like, lmao nice touch with the direwolf prow and sails indicating it’s her own ship, but like how? Where? When? And btw when you go on expeditions like that you do not go on only one ship, you take an entire fleet. So you have more supplies and also in case you run into bad storms, pirates, etc. This is super basic. Anyone who read the books just one time would know that. And I’m not saying Arya couldn’t learn to sail and navigate but the fact is she didn’t. We were not shown that. Since when can Arya sail a ship and chart a course across the sea? How does that make any sense for her arc when the audience was never remotely shown anything like that?

Something that might have made sense if she wants to explore a little? Umm idk maybe explore the lands beyond The Wall? Since there is no more White Walkers to worry about in the lands of always winter she could have went North and North and North again. Seeing as how she is Stark af and all, she could have done that, it would have have made more sense than sailing, when we weren’t even shown that she knows how. She could have even taken Nymeria and her huge ass wolf pack out there, back to the lands where they all belong. I’m sure Edmure would like them out of the Riverlands now that there’s no more enemy soldiers occupying the lands that they can terrorize and eat :)

You are seriously gonna point out that Bran doesn’t have a Master of War or Master of Whispers on his council…. And what, Arya couldn’t fill either of those positions? Lmao, I’m pretty sure that was Arya Stark out there that ended The Great War. Yep, it definitely was. Ummm, remember that whole arc she had in Braavos training with the most feared and famed assassin’s guild in the world? Pretty sure that training entailed espionage and how to gather knowledge. But sure it makes more sense for her to suddenly be a skilled sailor out of East-Jesus-Nowhere than to have a place on her own brothers council. Cool cool.

It apparently also makes more sense to have Bronn on that council than Arya. Bronn, an immoral sell sword, who once told Tyrion when asked that he would indeed kill a baby if the price was right. Bronn who probably doesn’t even know how to read let alone do maths, who self admittedly will do basically anything for the right amount of money makes sense as the Master of Coin though. Right. Cool.

I mean, lmao like I just thought about it for like 15 minutes and came up with a couple ideas that make more sense for show!Arya that don’t entail her just bEiNg A lAdY if that was too absurd for these dipsticks because they completely misunderstood what “I don’t want to be a lady” means for Arya in the books, and can’t write nuance at all.

And honestly? Weirdly that’s kind of the best part of this boring, lackluster, nonsensical finale. Like it’s really really hard to take seriously because it’s just that bad. There is no nuance, the character arcs are broken and have no good resolutions, their world hasn’t fundamentally changed and been through a rebirth into a new age. The prophecies were all ruined for ~shock value~ and mean nothing. The themes. Oh God the themes. All the beautiful themes. The themes that mean so so much in the books. Gone. They don’t even exist in the show. I’m just not even worried that these are the endgames for most of these characters in the books. Because how could they be? The characters in the books don’t exist in the show. It’s pretty easy to write off when it makes so little sense next to the foreshadowing and character building we get in the books.

Perhaps so, anon.

But it changes nothing for me.

Starks are still Lannisters Lite™.

Dothraki is still dead. And their en masse death was offscreen that was spared not even a minute of action.

Missandei is still dead to give a push to “will Dany become her father narrative?”

Dragons can be shot down like you are playing Duck Hunt. (If it were that easy to kill dragons, Targaryens wouldn’t be revered with near god-like status throughout westeros.) How hard is it to give him a dragon horn? Seriously?

Euron still has a magical apparating fleet.

Dany is apparently blind and cannot see a fricking fleet while being up in the air. (I’m invoking the Dhritarashtra clause and say that she can’t be a ruler if she’s so blind.)

Dany is so dumb suddenly that she takes her dragons in a luxurious stroll through enemy territories. (Where’s the show!Dany who sneaaked into Meereen at night while the city was under siege?)

Jon is now that desi guy who had a love marriage, and his family is horrible to the new bride because they wanted an arranged marriage, but he is so into patriarchy and “family values” that he’ll pretend not to see the tension in the family, and never sticks up for his wife.

Varys is now a garden-variety villain who is also a misogynist to boot.

Tyrion is now stupid enough to talk about “divided loyalties” in a crypt full of people, right in front of Missandei - the Queen’s closest confidant and advisor. (Remember the Tyrion who fed different info to different people to see who all waas reporting back to the Queen Cersei? Well, he is no longer there.)

Bran is Info Dump device.

All we needed to revert apocalypse was a knife in the correct zombie dude’s chest.

Cersei’s hair has lost it’s ability to grow.

The other lannister’s hair has become positively brown, though Tyrion’s hair is regaining some colour.

Also, it still doesn’t change the fact that no one bats an eyelash when Robb/Stannis/Tyrion/Jon’s war has casualties, but god forbid if Dany’s do!! Dany should kill only bad people and if not, she’s mad and a tyrant! However, no one says this about any other ruler of westeros.

Also, if the Alternate set of leaks are true, it’s still a shitshow.

Am I the only one who finds it hugely misogynistic that it’s a baby reveal that narratively “brings Dany back from the brink”? Be it ascertaining Jon’s loyalty (because he definitely can’t go against his baby momma) or Dany’s own mentality? The fandom’s hyper-focus on this baby as a “fix-it” to jonerys relationship is disgusting to me. (Children are not band-aids to a relationship. They do not “ease” any strain in a relationship. In fact they’d only add strain and this narrative needs to die.) Not to mention, it still ruins the character arc of another marginalized character - Tyrion, without giving him enough backstory and reasons to betray people who are very close to him.